Unique Events and Venues: Frontier Volleyball Stadium Series (Hamburg, New York)

This past fall, high school volleyball history was made in Western New York.

On September 6, Frontier High School hosted crosstown rival Hamburg High School for the first-ever “Frontier Volleyball Stadium Series.”

The community event, a girls-boys doubleheader, was held on the 50-yard line in Frontier’s football stadium, marking the first-ever sanctioned outdoor high school boys volleyball match in New York state history.

School officials also believe the event could be the first outdoor sanctioned boys volleyball match in U.S. history, and the series was the largest sanctioned outdoor volleyball match in state history with more than 2,000 fans in attendance.

Frontier High School varsity boys volleyball coach Nick Penberthy, who is also a fifth-grade teacher, said the idea hatched in August 2023 after the University of Nebraska women’s volleyball team played an outdoor match at Memorial Stadium against Omaha in front of 92,003 fans – the largest recorded crowd to watch a women’s sporting event in U.S. history.

Copycat events ensued the following year, including in the fall of 2024 when an inaugural “Showdown at Sundown” event was jointly held between Newark Catholic High School and Newark High School in Ohio, proving an outdoor match could be replicated at the high school level.

At his annual end-of-season meeting in 2024, Penberthy met with his athletic director, Jim Helmicki, and the two shared ideas of how Frontier might be able to put on its own event in the future.

Penberthy said he then reached out to the programs involved in the Ohio event and still has all the copious notes based on their feedback. Penberthy and Helmicki agreed that to make the idea a success they would need community support, so they reached out to rival Hamburg High School – which is in the same town as Frontier – and decided to make their annual “Paws vs. Claws” matches the outdoor series.

“I think the unique thing for us was that we were able to feature the boys and the girls varsity back to back, which no one else had done,” Penberthy said. “That was kind of like our own unique spin on it. But the big thing was … if we wanted it to be big, it’s got to be a community event.”

With school and community support, Frontier’s planning for the September series started back in November 2024. The “Sport Court” surface then arrived this past May and the volleyball athletes set the court up for the first time in June, and trials were held on the court throughout the summer to work out any kinks before the big day.

To make the event inclusive for fans of all ages, the day of the event also provided much more than volleyball matches, as there were DJs, food trucks and a “Kids Zone” featuring bounce houses and inflatables and face painting, among other offerings.

Initially, Penberthy said the goal was to get over 1,000 fans to attend, including Frontier and Hamburg students K-12 getting in for free. Penberthy said they ended up selling more than 1,000 pre-sale tickets and estimated there was more than 2,000 total fans in attendance during the event, describing the scene as a “homecoming crowd” in the stands. He credited local media coverage and social media buzz for helping drum up excitement for the matches.

Penberthy said a lot of alumni from the volleyball programs attended and brought their kids, and there was a large youth turnout from the schools.

During the matches, every player on each team got to participate, and the football scoreboard was used to display the faces of the players – another small touch making the event special. Penberthy said there was an informal agreement that every player would get in for at least a full set so everyone could be a part of the history of the day.

On the court, Hamburg outlasted Frontier 3-2 in the girls match and Frontier’s boys team won in straight sets 3-0.

With the popularity of the inaugural event, Penberthy anticipates the stadium series could become an annual tradition. He commended the school administration, staff and community for making it happen.

“The school community is great at Frontier. … There’s so many people that, if they didn’t do their part, it wouldn’t have been able to happen,” Penberthy said. “I think that’s kind of like the goal of high school sports in general, like even bringing in the music department for the national anthem, and just like different things to bring all these entities that sometimes are at odds (together).”

Frontier owns the playing service used during the stadium games and is considering making it an annual back-to-school event. Penberthy said the monies that came into the program from the event are in a separate account for future outdoor games, and one improvement they’re already looking at getting is an underlayment for underneath the court to make it sturdier.

There are some kinks that organizers would like to work out before the next stadium games, but Penberthy said that overall it was a massive success. He also said that they’re looking at maybe adding a preseason tournament outdoors to get more teams involved in the future.

High school boys volleyball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States, according to the annual NFHS Sports Participation Survey, and girls volleyball remains extremely popular.

Over the past three years, the number of boys playing volleyball has jumped from 66,487 to 95,972 – and the sport now is No. 11 on the list of top sports. In addition, 25 state associations are now conducting state volleyball championships for boys.

Girls volleyball has been a consistent top 10 sport throughout the survey’s history and reached an all-time record for participation this past year nationwide with 492,799 student-athletes. The sport trails just outdoor track and field for total number of participants for girls sports.

“It’s growing so fast right now,” Penberthy said. “So to put the sport in focus like that is really awesome for the growth of the sport.”

Jordan Morey is manager of communications and media relations at the NFHS.